a running blog

Camperdown Parkrun

A 6:30 am alarm on a Saturday morning, an 83 mile journey in pouring rain, just to run a parkrun, when there is one less than a mile down the road from my flat. It sounds completely mad! However I’ve set myself the goal of running all the Scottish parkruns and I’m determined to see this through.

Dundee is on the outer limits of a reasonable day trip for a 9:30 am start (Scottish parkruns start at 9:30am!) and the local parkrun is in Camperdown Park, a country park to the north west of the city. The course is mostly on unpaved paths and passes through open parkland and wooded areas. It is a challenging run with a half mile uphill section at the half way point and another hill to the finish line.

My only expectations were to enjoy myself and to not regret failing to find a toilet between leaving home at 7:30 and the start of the run at 9:30. Thankfully I succeeded in both: the rain held off and the snow drops were plentiful, the park lovely and the locals friendly and chatty. The chance to run off road was also a very pleasant change.

There followed a change of clothes in (what I thought was) a remote car park, with strategic pauses while dog walkers passed and got in and out of their cars and put their wellies on. Jeez some of them were slow!

I then found my way to the centre of Dundee and wandered around the McManus Museum and Art Gallery and then had a well earned toasty and hot chocolate in a local cafe before driving back to Glasgow. There was a heart sinking moment when I discovered that I had lost my parking ticket, but the man on the other end of the help button was short staffed and friendly so let me through the gate for free.